The "Civilization and Enlightenment" (Bunmei Kaika) movement swept Japan after the Meiji Restoration, as Western dress, beef stew restaurants, gas lamps, railways, telegraphs, and newspapers rapidly spread. Fukuzawa Yukichi's "An Encouragement of Learning" (1872) promoted egalitarianism. The Iwakura Mission (1871-73) surveyed Western political, industrial, and educational systems. This era of collision and fusion between Japanese tradition and Western modernity shaped the foundations of contemporary Japanese society.

On November 15, 1872, the Meiji government enacted Japan's first modern banking law. Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931), head of Treasury Reform, drafted it modeling the U.S. National Bank system, jointly proposed with Itō Hirobumi. It allowed private capital banking, requiring 60% capital in government kinroku-kōsai bonds (issued for stipend commutation) and 40% in gold specie. "National" meant "under national law," not state-owned. On July 20, 1873, Shibusawa himself founded the First National Bank (an ancestor of modern Mizuho Bank) at Tokyo Kabutochō as first president. The Second (Yokohama, 1873), Third (Yasuda Zenjirō, 1876), and Fifteenth (Peers' Bank, 1877) followed—153 banks nationwide. When the Bank of Japan was founded in 1882 (issuing notes from 1885), note-issuance centralized there. National banks converted to ordinary banks in 1896-99. Shibusawa helped found some 500 companies, earning the title "father of Japanese capitalism."

明治6年（1873年）、渋沢栄一が日本初の銀行・第一国立銀行を東京・兜町に設立した。渋沢はパリ万博でヨーロッパの金融制度を学び、株式会社制度と銀行制度を日本に導入。「民の力で国を富ませる」という信念のもと、生涯で約500の企業と約600の社会事業の設立に関わった。2024年に新一万円札の肖像に採用。